


Should I ask?

by peterpannerisms (prouvairecateur)



Series: No Need To Worry About Us [1]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, nothing too graphic, the t rating is mainly for a few choice words, very minor mentions of blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 14:09:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3491252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prouvairecateur/pseuds/peterpannerisms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on this AU prompt from tumblr: 'i'm in my underpants in a laundromat waiting for my clothes to get washed and your clothes are in the machine next to mine and i noticed that when you put your clothes in they were all covered in blood what the fuck.' </p><p>Roe finds Babe in their apartment's laundry room at two in the morning, wearing nothing but a pair of underwear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Should I ask?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for Band of Brothers, based off a prompt an anon sent me on tumblr. This has not been beta read, so I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors.
> 
> Disclaimer: All characters in this story are based off of the depiction from the HBO show, and I mean no disrespect to the real people the characters are based on.

It was two in the morning, and instead of being asleep, Babe was sitting in his apartment’s communal laundry room. This late at night he was all alone, so no one was there to see him sitting there lazily stretched out in nothing but a pair of boxers and a pair of mismatched socks. Or at least he was alone until he heard the footsteps quickly approaching the laundry room, making shuffling noises against the linoleum of the basement floor.

“Heffron?”

Babe’s head snapped up when the man in the hallway called to him. He recognized him, Eugene Roe, as the occupant of the apartment diagonally across the hall from Babe. In the three months since Roe had moved in, none of the other men in the building had exchanged more than a couple words with him. It was not because he was rude or that he never left his apartment. It was actually quite the opposite.

The dark-haired man must have worked long and odd hours or else he had a very productive social life, because he was rarely ever seen for more than a few fleeting moments as he was coming and going.

Looking at him now, Babe could see the faint hint of dark circles forming under his eyes, and it made him wonder why the man was not asleep. Surely the laundry could have waited until a more reasonable hour, but then Babe had to remind himself that he had also waited until this time of the night to do his laundry. And at least Roe was fully clothed.

“Why don’t you call me Babe, Eugene? All the other guys do.”

Babe received a small smirk in return. He pulled his legs closer to himself, so that the other man could move into the room and toward one of the unoccupied machines.

Without thinking, nor taking into account the state of his undress, he followed Roe with an air of curiosity. Babe opened his mouth to speak, but was beaten to it.

“So should I ask about-?” He trailed off slowly at the end of his question. With his hands still holding the basket of clothes, he nodded his head as a means of addressing Babe’s exposed nature.

“Oh that. Uh- I got a little behind on laundry and this was all I could find that was clean.” Where any number of the other men would have teased him or made some remark to cover up, Roe just nodded slowly- lips tight and eyebrows raised- as he gave Babe an almost appraising once over. 

“And you hoped you wouldn’t get caught if you waited until the middle of the night to come down here.”

“Exactly.”

Roe laughed quietly, even though it echoed quite loudly throughout the small, enclosed space. He set his basket down and opened up the door of the machine washer in front of him. Shaking his head with amusement.

Babe could not stop the smile that spread across his face, caused by the other man’s laughter. It was such a nice and carefree sound, one he had not been expecting to hear from the man who had always seemed so serious. He made a mental promise that he would be the cause of that sound more often.

“So what brings you down here at-” He paused briefly to glance at the watch that he still wore on his wrist before adding, “two forty-seven in the morning?”

“Got a little behind on things myself. Well, that and I just got off work about an hour ago.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. His blank, tired stare focused on the clothes still laying in the basket. “I forgot I had nothing clean to wear for the morning shift tomorrow.”

“And you couldn’t just wear the same uniform twice?” Babe had no idea where the other man worked and whether it would be possible to re-wear the clothes without washing them. It was just what he had always done in that situation.

In response, Roe lifted the piece of clothing from the top of the basket, holding it up for Babe to see. What he saw was a shirt marked by several large red stains that could not be mistaken for anything other than blood.

“What the fuck, Gene?” Babe shouted, forgetting that most people in the building were trying to sleep. Not only had he been surprised by the blood-stained shirt, but also by the wide smile spread across the owner’s face. He laughed somewhat hesitantly. “Holy shit, man. You didn’t kill someone, did you?”

Not that he believed his neighbor was a serial killer, but he was still shocked by the state of Roe’s clothing nonetheless. Any arousal the man’s laugh had caused for Babe earlier was quickly replaced with confusion and a hint of nervousness. “Fuck, that’s a lot of blood.”

“Don’t worry, Heffron. I didn’t kill anyone, okay? And he is expected to make a full recovery by the way.”

“Eugene?”

“Yeah?”

“The hell do you work?”  
“In Emergency.”

Suddenly, it all started to make more sense to Babe- the blood on the shirt, the odd hours the man seemed to work, and hell even the way the he had always seemed to be watching everyone around him carefully to make sure they were alright. 

“You mean like at a hospital?”

Roe nodded. “I’m a doctor.” The same confused expression he had before by Babe’s lack of clothing had returned. “Have I never told you that before?”

“To be honest, Gene, I don’t think you’re ever around long enough to tell me much of anything. They must keep you busy at the hospital, yeah?”

Babe watched patiently as the other man finished loading his clothes into the washer before slamming that lid down, with what was perhaps more force than necessary. He blinked slowly several times before he muttered a quiet, “Yeah.” Roe looked even more fatigued than he had when he first called to Babe from the hallway, as if the past few minutes had drained the remaining energy from him. “Spending twelve hours a day on your feet running around is not easy, but I like what I do.”

“What do you do at the hospital?” Babe mentally slapped himself for asking such an obvious question. There were only so many things he could be doing if he worked in an emergency room.

Fortunately Roe had not thought it too odd a question, or at least he did not let on that he thought so. He just smirked before replying, “I’m a doctor.”

What a doctor was doing living in such and old and run-down apartment building, Babe could not say. He had always assumed doctors lived in penthouses that had a master suite, not a one-room drafty walk-up. He remembered his mother telling him that if he was not going to work a well-paying job, Babe should find himself someone who did, like a doctor or lawyer. If only his mom had been here to see the doctor he had found. Maybe then she wouldn’t have been so opposed to her son dating men.

Wait, dating? Where had that come from? Babe had barely started his first real conversation with the guy, and his thoughts had already drifted toward some strange conclusion. He had to admit that he found the man attractive and liked his easy-going and kind nature. That was as far as he would let his mind wander, though. For now, at least. He quickly shook the thoughts from his head and returned his attention to the man, the doctor, leaning against the washer.

“When do you have to go back in tomorrow?”

“In about six hours.”

“Shit,” Babe said before whistling through his teeth. “You even planning on getting any sleep?”

“I don’t think I’d be getting much even if I tried.” Roe looked up at Babe once more and smiled brightly, as if he had just told a joke and was waiting to see the man’s reaction. There was a moment, after the dryer behind Babe buzzed, neither man spoke. The pair had both turned their attention to the respective machines and busied themselves with taking care of their clothes. 

Once Babe had folded the entire load of laundry and returned them back to his basket, and closed the dryer door, he turned around to see Roe sitting in the chair he had previously been occupying. Only in the five minutes he had not been keeping an eye on the man, he had slowly fallen into what looked like a deep sleep.

Babe wondered to himself how Roe could be comfortable enough to knock out in the chair that had been less than appealing when he had been sitting in it about ten minutes prior. He could only assume that the man was well-versed in sleeping wherever was available and questioned it no further. Instead he checked the time on his watch before hopping up on the nearest machine, content to sit there while the other man got the sleep he needed.

~.~.~.~.~

Several hours later, Babe was walking back down the hallway to the laundry room, trying his best to balance the plate and two mugs in his hands. 

In the time that Roe had been asleep, Babe had taken it upon himself to make the pair of them an early breakfast of toast and coffee. It was only when he had finished watching a rerun of some old 90s sitcom, waiting for the coffee to be finished, had he realized that if he did not return soon to wake the doctor, the man would not have enough time to get ready for his shift. Babe did not know how long it took Roe to get ready in the morning, so he thought he would give the man at least a two hour heads-up.

When he finally made it back to the laundry room, he was pleased to see the other man was already awake and had started on folding and sorting his clothes. 

“So he lives,” Babe joked, setting everything he carried down on the nearest flat surface he could find. Roe’s head shot up, and he looked as if he was shocked to see the other man standing there. Perhaps, he has assumed Babe had gone back upstairs to get some sleep. “I was just coming by to make sure you were awake. And I come bearing food and coffee.”

Roe reached over and tapped his phone twice. “Had an alarm set in case I fell asleep like that. Wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened.” He finished folding his last piece of clothing before smiling gratefully at Babe. “Thanks for throwing this stuff in the dryer for me, by the way.”

When the light-haired man handed him a cup of coffee, he added, “And thanks for making breakfast. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I didn’t,” Babe admitted. “But I wanted to.”

The doctor held the cup close to his face as he inhaled the scent coming from the steaming drink. “Well, I owe you one, Heffron. You’re a lifesaver.”

“‘m pretty sure that’s your job, Gene.”

For the second time that morning, Roe’s laughter filled the room. Though Babe was much more tired than he had been the first time, it did not fail to bring a dopey smile to his face as he joined in with a softer chuckle of his own. His amusement had less to do with his cheesy joke and more to do with the man’s reaction to it. He was already keeping his promise.

The pair sat atop two of the washers as they ate the food Babe had brought for them, and he asked the other man more questions about his job among other things they talked about. By the time Roe’s second alarm had gone off, they had talked about everything from their families to all of the sports that Babe had attempted throughout his adolescence. 

With a contented sigh, Roe pushed himself up and to his feet once more and made his way over to pick up his discarded basket of laundry. “Well, that’s my cue to go get ready to go back in.” He sounded disappointed by this, like he wished to spend the rest of the morning sitting on the cold metal and talking with Babe. “Thanks again for the coffee, and everything else.”

Babe smiled and said, “Sure thing,” as he watched the other man slowly make his way to the exit. 

He did not realize he had been staring until he heard the man call his name. Only he did not call him Edward or Heffron this time. 

 

“You called me Babe,” the young man observed thoughtfully, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. 

Roe frowned at him before nodding once. “I guess I did. Just had one more thing I wanted to say before I gotta go.”

“What?”

“You should probably put some clothes on, it’s been pretty cold these past few days. And we wouldn’t want any of the other guys seeing you like this, now would we?”

This time, it was Babe who laughed boisterously, so loud he was sure the people living on the floor above the basement would hear it. He shook his head and as he looked back at the man in the doorway, he could have sworn he saw him wink. “No we wouldn’t.”

“You take care of yourself now, alright Babe?”

Roe did not wait for a response before he turned and retreated back to his room, leaving Babe there in his underwear, in the middle of the laundry room. Babe smiled and shook his head.

“Whatever you say, Doc.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think here or on tumblr (peterpannerisms), and feel free to send me any prompts! Until next time! -Renee


End file.
